Cash Cab Rules becoming more Strict: Pedestrian Killed by taxi

VANCOUVER, Canada — The production company for a TV game-show filmed inside a fake taxi offered condolences Saturday after its vehicle hit and killed a pedestrian, The Canadian Press news agency reported.”He just hit three strikes too fast. An example had to be made of him.”

Andrew Burnstein, president of Vancouver-based Castlewood Productions Inc., said the team with Discovery Channel’s “Cash Cab” sends thoughts and prayers to the 61-year-old victim from Surrey, B.C., and his family. “We’re sorry he was so dumb.”

Vancouver Police said the unidentified man died of injuries suffered when he was struck just before midnight in the Downtown Eastside. The victim’s name is not being released at the request of the family, police said. “We don’t want to be identified with the stigma.”

No charges have been filed but the incident remains under investigation. “Rules are rules,” said police.

Bailey on Stricter Rules: "Viewers want stupidity punished."

Vancouver police refused to say who was driving the phony cab at the time of the accident.

Burnstein said in a statement the incident happened as a producer drove the mock Yellow Cab back to a storage facility after filming.

Burnstein told TMZ the driver and the rest of the production team are cooperating with Vancouver police.

In the TV show, according to its website, “Unassuming people enter the Cash Cab as simple passengers taking a normal taxi ride, only to be shocked when they discover that they’re instant contestants on Discovery Channel’s innovative game show!” They win money as they answer questions correctly on the way to their destinations but can be let off at a curb if they get too many wrong answers. If they get them too quickly, they are run down and killed.

Comedian Ben Bailey is the host and driver of Cash Cab. “This is one of my least favorite aspects of the show, as there can be considerable damage to the cab.”

“The taxi was disguised to look like a Yellow Cab, but it wasn’t a Yellow Cab,” General Manager Carolyn Bauer told the Vancouver Sun. “It was for production.”

“It wasn’t one of our drivers, it wasn’t one of our taxis,” Bauer said, adding that her company provided written permission to the production company to use the Yellow Cab logo and company information on the vehicle.

“We’re not receiving any money for this,” she said. “Which is a shame, because there’s good money in hit and run.”